Kobayashi sure Caterham can enjoy good season

Kamui Kobayashi says there is no reason why Caterham cannot enjoy a good season in Formula 1 this year.

Kobayashi will race for the Leafield based team in 2014 after spending a year outside of Formula 1.

Caterham has not scored a point in its Formula 1 history but the Japanese believes the team has a good foundation on which they can build.

"We start the season in Melbourne and I’m excited about getting back to racing F1 cars again! The last time I raced in Melbourne [in 2012 with Sauber] I was sixth and while I don’t think that’s a realistic target for us this year, I think the race will be very interesting," he said.

"There could be reliability problems for lots of teams, us as well obviously, but by the end of the tests our reliability was okay, certainly better than a few other teams, and that could be very important on Sunday in Melbourne.

"Obviously for me this is my first race back, and I’m really pleased it’s with Caterham. I guarantee that they are working as hard as anyone else to have a good year in 2014 and I’ve been very impressed with how determined they are to succeed.

"They have a very good base to work from in Leafield, so there’s no reason we can’t have a good year, particularly with what we have planned to improve the car as the season goes on."

Kobayashi insists that Caterham is unsure of their position in the pecking order ahead of next weekend's race.

"We still don’t know exactly where we are on performance, partly because you never do in tests because you don’t know what everyone else is doing, but also because we didn’t really have a chance to do a proper qualifying simulation in [testing in] Bahrain.

"We have some new parts coming to Australia, including some revisions to the front wing, so we’ll be working on them on Friday and Saturday morning and know more about where we are when qualifying’s finished on Saturday."